


Gathering

by astrokath



Series: Kath's drabbles100 collections [5]
Category: Dragonriders of Pern - Anne McCaffrey
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-30
Updated: 2014-03-30
Packaged: 2018-01-17 14:24:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 503
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1391035
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/astrokath/pseuds/astrokath
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Gather subset of the Weyr Life drabbles</p>
            </blockquote>





	Gathering

**Sight**

  
During a Pass, you can spend days at a time cooped up in your stinking cothold, kept safe behind shutters and bored by the same old claustrophobic company.  It's worse in winter, when the weather or 'fall makes travel awkward, and the little luxuries that make life bearable run low.  
  
Even on a rest day, there's still work to be done, but if it's Thread free and clear, everyone wants to be outside.  All through the morning, you'll see people looking back over their shoulders towards the Hold, hoping to be first to catch sight of the Gather Flag flying....

 

 **Smell**  
  
There's nothing quite like a gather for smells.  
  
The first thing you notice is the scent of roasting herdbeast and bubbly pies carried on the breeze... unless you happen to tread in something that came out of the rear end of a runnerbeast first.    
  
Abandoning your dragon for the crowds, you smell the people next.  Early on, the ladies are scented with floral perfumes.  Later, once the dancing is underway, their own sweat.  Mind you, they complain of the reek of firestone in return.    
  
As the gather ends, the simple spicy scent of your own dragon is very welcome indeed.

 

 **Sound**  
  
There's nothing quite like a Gather for sounds.  
  
The weyrsinger's good enough, but you rarely get more than one Harper visiting the Weyr at a time, and you can't beat a rousing ballad or a few good dance reels.  The Lords do like to outdo each other, and there's always something new, especially at Fort.  
  
Ah, but the real music doesn't come from Harpers.  No, you have to go further down the valley, to the runnerbeast races.  Cheering crowds, shouted odds, and the oh-so-sweet moment when you know you'll be leaving with more marks than you came with.

 

**Taste**

  
Harper gossip, Crafter wares and Holder girls aren't the only lure of a Gather.  No, you should never overlook the appeal of the food!  
  
Tithe's don't change much at the Weyr, but with a dragon, the delights of all Pern are but a few heartbeats away!  The spicy herdbeast goulash of the Telgar plains, washed down with a flagon of stout... Delicately spiced fish and sweet liquers from Boll... Igen Klah, the flaming peppers of Ista, or the mulled wine and brandies of the High Reaches.  
  
Most of all, that paragon of flavours: a glass of the finest Benden white.

 

 **Touch**  
  
Nothing feels quite like a Gather.   
  
As the anticipation builds, all your cares and worries slip away, and even last 'fall's Threadscore stops aching.  At the Weyr, you're a solitary cog; at a Gather, a _dragonrider_ , one of Pern's heroes, idolised by the lads and admired by the ladies.   
  
Nothing feels quite like a Holder lass, spinning across the dance square in your arms.  Softer than the women of the Weyr, who've heard all your stories before, the Hold girls still gasp and giggle, entranced.    
  
And then, the kisses: you'll feel those sweet, sweet lips until the Gather night ends.

 

 


End file.
